Looking Ahead

More by coincidence than any sort of clever planning, I have reached the new year at a moment of hobby tranquility if not stasis so it  seemed like as good a time as any to pause for reflection and make plans form some vague intentions for the winter campaigning season.  (Yay Snow!) (in moderation...)

The next time the Governor General's Bodyguard needs to dismount, I'll have proper figures. 

Last year I managed to get each and every one of my active collections on the table for a game. It felt good but also made it hard to focus on anything, which may be one reason that I didn't do a lot of painting last year. That's a good thing since the shelves are full but I have no intention of giving that side of the hobby up yet. I have mentioned recently that I don't enjoy painting as much as I used to but I was thinking mostly of the business of churning out unit after unit of 12 or 20 figures with lots of detail. A few 40's with simple shading or a few  glossy toy soldiers is a different matter.

The  Highlanders starting recruiting men for a second unit to fight the French in May. He's got a ways to go before he's a soldier yet!

Casting, converting and painting another 11 Highlanders, 12 Emigres in round hats, 6 Riflemen and 36 more Revolutionary French infantry is pretty low on my list of things I feel like doing, esp as my casting work area is temporarily shut down but I'm looking forward to the resulting game so "Duty calls" and that will have to dominate my winter painting time along with flushing out a few important gaps in my 54mm Toy Soldier OB as periodic relief. I want to get at least a few of my new Doug Miller landsknechts done but I will have to be in the mood to handle the delicate assembly, complex colours and shading so it may slip till spring.

Game wise, once I have enough French AGW figures to add to some SYW stand-ins,  I need to practice A Gentleman's War and conscript a few friends so I can be ready to GM a multiplayer AGW game at Huzzah! in May.

For fun, I expect to keep my 54's busy. Despite some very enjoyable games with the 54's it was not their best year as I started the year with some doubts about the path I was on and the various paths not taken. So it was that I rebased the armies to singles and tried then rejected what seemed like a dozen different approaches and then parked them. Having now tried out all the other various ways that I thought I might, or should, want go with the 54's, I'm satisfied that I don't actually want to go any of those routes, so I'm reforming back to the way things were last New Year's and looking forward to more games.

Sittingbad (click)from Boxing Day 2018,
as it was and shall be again!

Of course should I get a sudden urge......buckle up!
 2020, here we come!